An Example from Tatian's Exhortation to the Greeks

I know how New Testament scholars think because I have interacted with them for years. They are very knowledgeable. There is no doubt about that. But their eyes are typically quite myopic. Take my last example about the possibility that 2 Corinthians 4:6 is citing the passage we call John 1:5. Our whole inherited Catholic system cannot allow for this. After all 'Paul' lived before 70 CE and 'John' wrote his gospel closer to 100 CE.

Yet all of these ideas are based on the flimsiest of historical proofs. I don't believe a word about ANYTHING that the Catholic tradition tells me about ANYTHING or ANYONE in its earliest period.

Perhaps this is 'unhealthy' but it helps me incorporate new perspectives on Christianity, like that of Tatian who writes:

The soul is not in itself immortal, O Greeks, but mortal. Yet it is possible for it not to die. If, indeed, it knows not the truth, it dies, and is dissolved with the body, but rises again at last at the end of the world with the body, receiving death by punishment in immortality. But, again, if it acquires the knowledge of God, it dies not, although for a time it be dissolved. In itself it is darkness, and there is nothing luminous in it. And this is the meaning of the saying, "The darkness comprehendeth not the light." For the soul does not preserve the spirit, but is preserved by it, and the light comprehends the darkness. The Logos, in truth, is the light of God, but the ignorant soul is darkness. On this account, if it continues solitary, it tends downward towards matter, and dies with the flesh; but, if it enters into union with the Divine Spirit, it is no longer helpless, but ascends to the regions whither the Spirit guides it: for the dwelling-place of the spirit is above, but the origin of the soul is from beneath. [Tatian, Exhortation to the Greeks 13]

The citation of what we would call John 1:5 would not be John 1:5 for Tatian. After all he inherited a single, long gospel from his master Justin. He might have identified 'John' as the author of this gospel. I don't know. But the one thing I am sure of is that this gospel contained parallel passages to our synoptic and Johannine texts albeit typically in a slightly different form.

It is my guess that ALL of the single, long gospels of antiquity INCLUDING THE ALEXANDRIAN GOSPEL OF MARK began with a version of what we would call 'the first chapter of John.' It's simply too perfect an introduction to be limited to one 'version of the gospels.' Any gospel claiming to derive from 'Mark' or 'John' (except the canonical 'according to Mark' of course) opened with these words.

Indeed the Epistle to the Apostles runs through a contents of a variant gospel with passages from all four gospels 'mixed' in a different order from the Arabic Diatessaron which makes reference to the first chapter of John. We read:

In God, the Lord, the Son of God, [Mark 1:1] do we believe, that he is the word become flesh: that of Mary the holy virgin he took a body, begotten of the Holy Ghost, not of the will (lust) of the flesh, but by the will of God: that he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem and made manifest, and grew up and came to ripe age, when also we beheld it.

This did our Lord Jesus Christ, who was sent by Joseph and Mary his mother to be taught. [And] when he that taught him said unto him: Say Alpha: then answered he and said: Tell thou me first what is Beta. This thing which then came to pass Is true and of verity.

Thereafter was there a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and they bade him with his mother and his brethren, and he changed water into wine. He raised the dead, he caused the lame to walk: him whose hand was withered he caused to stretch it out, and the woman which had suffered an issue of blood twelve years touched the hem of his garment and was healed in the same hour. And when we marvelled at the miracle which was done, he said: Who touched me? Then said we: Lord, the press of men hath touched thee. But he answered and said unto us: I perceive that a virtue is gone out of me. Straightway that woman came before him, and answered and said unto him: Lord, I touched thee. And he answered and said unto her: Go, thy faith hath made thee whole. Thereafter he made the deaf to hear and the blind to see; out of them that were possessed he cast out the unclean spirits, and cleansed the lepers. The spirit which dwelt in a man, whereof the name was Legion, cried out against Jesus, saying: Before the time of our destruction is come, thou art come to drive us out. But the Lord Jesus rebuked him, saying: Go out of this man and do him no hurt. And he entered into the swine and drowned them in the water and they were choked.

The Epistle to the Apostles is a Coptic witness to the original Alexandrian gospel of Mark. Notice the text begins with Mark 1:1. Notice also it references the story which was present in the gospel of the Marcosians (cf. Irenaeus AH i.20.1) or 'those of Mark. Notice also that John appears first in the order of disciples listed in the text viz:

We, John, Thomas, Peter, Andrew, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Nathanael, Judas Zelotes, and Cephas, write unto the churches of the east and the west, of the north and the south declaring and imparting unto you that which concerneth our Lord Jesus Christ

Of course I can't prove any of this. It is likely destined to be little more than a 'suspicion.' It would be difficult to write an academic paper to prove any of this. But it is a suspicion I can share with all of you ...